From site to sight: embodying, repositioning, and challenging transgender corporeality

In contrast to the desexing perspective of fieldwork methodology, this article examines how sex/gender consciousness and the personal socio-cultural backgrounds of the researcher entangle to affect her observation, interaction, and meaning-making in the field. Due to divergencies in identity, positionality, and location, the researcher and her research subjects develop different sex/gender concepts and practices. The processes of encounters and negotiations modify or open up the dimensions of knowing and understanding, which then influence the researcher’s formation of knowledge. The public dimensions of fieldwork and the potential dynamics of debate come to light through the researcher’s reflection, self-positioning, and writing. This article will explore the above-mentioned phenomena via a transgender fieldsite.